The $1,400 stimulus checks, the increased Child Tax Credit, the assistance to local governments, and more lately, the potential for inflation, are what the American Rescue Plan is most famous for.
However, a lesser-known section of the enormous law delivered $86 billion to aid several Stimulus Check programs that were having financial difficulties.
Wednesday, President Biden made an appearance at a Cleveland high school to promote the Special Financial Assistance program of the American Rescue Plan, which is intended to support troubled multi-employer pension plans across the nation, including Ohio, where many unionized workers joined the plans only to watch them quickly veer towards insolvency. The measure, according to Secretary of Labor Marty Walsh, who is traveling with the president, “would safeguard millions of workers in multi-employer pension systems.”
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A White House representative stated that “any multi-employer pension plan that threatened near-term bankruptcy and benefit cutbacks… is forecast to stay sustainable through 2051, and many of them for much longer.” 2 million to 3 million employees and retirees will be saved from “severe cuts.”.
At 3:15 p.m. E.T., Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-OH), and Rep. Marcy Kaptur (D-OH), among others, will join Vice President Joe Biden in speaking. The Department of Labor’s recently published final regulation for the program, which will pave the way for the program’s actual launch, will be a topic of discussion by the president.
Legislators like Brown have long prioritized shoring up the funds, which were established decades ago to assist workers in certain industries like transportation or food processing so they could have unified retirement plans that would accompany them from job to job within their industry. According to 2017 research, there are 1,400 multi-employer pension plans in the United States that provide Stimulus Check benefits to 10 million employees. Roughly 100 of these plans are in a “critical and deteriorating” state.
